Camping in North Georgia

Unicoi State Park offers a variety of accommodation options. There is everything from full hook-up campsites for $24 (senior and Georgia veteran discounts available) to walk-in tent sites for $14, to cabins and cottages that sleep up to eight people and start at $69, to regular hotel rooms in the lodge. I bunked with a friend one Saturday night in the lodge while attending a conference/retreat for women in August 2005.

What were the lodge rooms like? We registered in the main building, which is full of a variety of conference rooms, a restaurant, a gift shop, and common areas. Our actual room was in building A. It was small with two beds, a TV with HBO, a pine desk, and coffeepot. Field and Stream magazine covers are framed as pieces of art. A leaf border running atop the yellow wallpaper matches the leaf pattern in the bedspreads. The heavy green curtains opened to reveal endless thickets of pine trees.

The age of the facility was evident in the bathroom, where the wallpaper was peeling in a couple of places and a splotch of mold was growing above the shower. To be fair, as awful as that sounds, the room was comfortable/functional (rates start at $69, so it’s pretty cheap if splitting the bill.), and we did not spend a lot of time there. The reason to stay here is really to enjoy the park itself: the hiking trails, the lake, and the nature programs.

When our conference meetings were over, several friends and I enjoyed sitting on porch swings that were available in the main common area outside. The temperatures at night in late August in Georgia can be hot, but there was a nice breeze. We could see over the resort's 1970s lodge buildings and into the forest. Indeed, that was a very pleasant way to spend an evening.

The restaurant? We ate three meals in the restaurant, all served buffet style, all Southern cooking, i.e. biscuits and gravy, country fried steak, fried trout, mashed potatoes, etc. I enjoyed the breakfast (by far) the most, but it was all okay.

Would I stay here again? Yes. In my opinion, the nearby town of Helen is a complete waste of time, unless you want to pick up some groceries or find an outfitter to help you rent a canoe (the rest of Helen consists of dive bars and restaurants, cheap trinket shops, and a hokey "Alpine Village" scene that is hilarious in light of all the leather-chapped bikers who are riding up and down the road), but Georgia has some beautiful wilderness areas. We saw a black bear and her cubs cross the street a couple miles north of the lodge!!! I know my son would enjoy exploring the state park. There are a ton of things to do, like inner-tubing down the Chattahoochee River, taking a class on snakes, going bird-watching, or going fishing. For those things, I'd return here.

Best Things Nearby:
There is a man-made "beach" on the lake where people enjoy swimming. If you want to explore the area in the daytime, apple orchards are nearby. This is in the Blue Ridge Mountains and the dam that brought the lake into existence once inspired author James Dickey to write a rather famous novel. (No, we didn't hear any banjo music while we were sleeping.)

Best Things About the Resort:
If you've got kids, there's a little playground by the front gate. The lake is in the heart of what used to be the Cherokee Nation, so there are opportunities for education within driving distance at various Indian cultural sites. Unfortunately, when Georgia had the first American gold rush, many of the Indians were driven onto The Trail of Tears by prospectors.

The campground's gate closes at sundown and is locked for security reasons until 9am the next morning. A park ranger stopped by our site while we were roasting marshmallows to make sure everyone was all right.

If you have a boat, there are six public ramps. Fishing for striped bass and walleye is popular on the lake. Archery hunting is available in the off-season when the campgrounds are closed.

I loved waking up in the morning to the honking of Canadian geese. My son and several of his friends had a ball exploring the shoreline. This was great until they brought me some fish bones they'd found. Ewww. They couldn't understand why I didn't let them take them home!

All in all, we had a very nice time.

Resort Experience:
There are several different camping areas at Carters Lake with differing amenities. While electricity and water sites are available, we chose one of the primitive sites at the Harris Beach campground. (My husband's one of those "We don't need sleeping bags! We can sleep on the leaves!" types. . . .) These are booked on a first come first served basis for $14 plus $3 per car.

Our site ended up being the very last one down a long, steep path, right on the lake. When I first saw it, I loved it! I could not understand why no one else had chosen this area because it gave us a lot of privacy. We were surrounded on three sides by water! Of course, the next day when we were lugging our equipment back up the hill, I understood! The primitive sites all provide a leveled area for a tent. Ours also included a picnic table, a grill, and a place to build a fire. Restrooms and the like were within walking distance.

• Campground Type: State/Province Park


• Campsite Type: Tent


• Price Range: $10 - $20


• Cleanliness: Very Good


• Campground Facilities: Very Good


• Recreational Facilities: Very Good


• Campsite Satisfaction: Excellent


• Family Friendliness: Very Good


• Service: Very Good

Stone Mountain Park is a major Atlanta attraction. With a golf course, lake, beach, tennis courts, walking trails, shops, a 4-D movie theater, and MORE, this is a wonderful place to visit with family. While an extra ticket is needed to visit Stone Mountain offerings, like the Antebellum Plantation or the children's tree house, campers can enjoy the free laser light shows on the main lawn in the summer. They can also hike to the top of the mountain and enjoy a fabulous view of Atlanta.

So how are the campgrounds?
Before we booked our campsite, a friend of mine scouted the area out. Some of the sites are narrow and very close together, but we chose a beautiful, flat area right by the lake. There was plenty of room for two tents: one for the adults, one for the kids. There was an outlet for electricity. This was very important to us because we were two moms who had somehow been talked into taking our sons camping for their last hurrah before the end of summer vacation. While we had agreed to pitch tents with the boys without our husbands, we weren't about to go without a coffee pot in the morning! The nearby bathrooms were also a big plus for us. (We're not the total roughin' it types. I admit it!!!)

We arrived at our campsite in the afternoon. My friend spread a blue tablecloth on the picnic table as we got settled. We munched on some snacks as we took in our view of Stone Mountain across the sparkling lake. We waved at the riverboat as it floated by us. Beautiful! We were having a great time until . . . well . . . it started raining.

Anyone who has ever spent any time in Georgia in the summer knows that this state is prone to sudden, heavy rain showers that clear up after a few minutes. So when the rain started falling, we decided to hurry up the road to the small store near the playground and wait it out. Here you can buy anything, from fish bait to charcoal to ice. We pressed our noses against the glass windows and watched. When lightening started to flash on the mountain, I started thinking about The Lord of the Rings and Weather Top. The crackled voice of a radio announcer said, "Severe flood warning alerts. Massive thunderstorms moving across Atlanta area." When our boys said it would blow over, we had to start laughing! When we got back to our campsite, the nearby pop-up campers seemed fine, but . . . well . . . the Mommies in our tent decided to jump ship.

While we cut our stay here short that trip, we've since been back to this campsite. I really don't think you could ask for much more from the facilities. It was well worth the money.

Held each year in September, the Stone Mountain Yellow Daisy Festival is one of the largest arts and crafts festivals in the United States. With the Georgia summer starting to cool (a little) after Labor Day, we decided the Yellow Daisy was a perfect excuse to go camping again. What could be more fun than pitching a tent on the Stone Mountain campgrounds and then catching a water taxi over to the festival in the afternoon? This proved to be a magnificent plan, enjoyed by both adults and kids.

So, what was the festival like? Vendors set up booths on hard-packed dirt trails to display their wares to festival visitors. Even if you don't have a big budget, you'll have fun looking at the multi-colored pottery, hand-carved totem poles, original oil paintings, a man blowing glass... The older boys all wanted the wood-carved rubber band guns, which they used to play Cowboys and Indians back at the campsite. We all enjoyed watching a lady demonstrate how to use her potato peeler to make homemade potato chips. Yum! This is a craft lover's paradise.

And then there was the festival food.... A giant food court is set up near a stage where musicians play all types of live music, from folk to bluegrass. We got the deep-fried funnel cakes covered in powdered sugar, cups of boiled peanuts, and corn dogs (you might want to pack the TUMS!).

Why's it called the Yellow Daisy Festival? The festival gets its name from the Confederate Yellow Daisy that grows wild on Stone Mountain. You can see a separate floral display in conjunction with all the crafts.

Extra notes: If you're not camping at Stone Mountain at the time of the festival, no worries. The festival itself is free, but you do have to pay for admittance to the park.

This is a traditional country store in Talking Rock, Georgia just down the road from Carters Lake. If you're camping, and you've forgotton just about anything, you can get it from here.

My husband found the store when we needed a little help to get our campfire going. (Before all you Boyscouts out there roll your eyes too much, it had just finished raining, so all the wood was wet.) The lady behind the counter at Bart's was happy to sell him a bag of charcoal. I also noticed when we drove up that there were old men sitting on the wide porch watching people fill up their gas tanks.

The interior of the building has an old fashioned general store feel contributed to by the hardwood floors and the portrait of George Washington hanging over the door. Several deer trophies line the wall to one side. There's an entire room devoted to fishing.

Me? I just wanted a cup o' coffee.

Bart's is located at
8126 Hwy. 136 W.

The number is 706-253-2248.